wrangler

[rang-gler]

noun

1. a cowboy, especially one in charge of saddle horses.

2. a person who wrangles or disputes.

3. (at Cambridge University, England) a person placed in the first class in the mathematics tripos.

wrangler

/ ˈræŋɡlə /

noun

1. one who wrangles

2. a herder; cowboy

3. a person who handles or controls animals involved in the making of a film or television programme

   a snake wrangler

4. (at Cambridge University) a candidate who has obtained first-class honours in Part II of the mathematics tripos. The wrangler with the highest marks is called the senior wrangler

Word History and Origins

Origin of wrangler¹

1505–15; wrangle + -er ¹; wrangler ( def. 1 ) originally horse-wrangler, probably partial translation of Mexican Spanish caballerango groom, stable boy, with -erango suggesting wrangler

Example Sentences

When the event’s signature balloons were introduced in the late 1920s, wranglers simply released the larger-than-life characters into the sky.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

For now, the reporters are relegated to lower press — where a wrangler admitted in writing that they cannot speak on the record for the administration.

Read more on Salon

Famed Australian crocodile wrangler Matt Wright has been found guilty of lying to police and pressuring a hospitalised witness after a fatal helicopter crash.

Read more on BBC

“Maybe I was an animal wrangler so I could put myself through chef school,” he says.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“No. Sorry,” the official said, as another pooler noted that wranglers looked on “sheepishly.”

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• breeder 
• herder 
• herdsman